1974 Porsche 911 DIY Budget Build - Rust Repair

[becausephilchow]

Absolutely amazing! Can't wait to see you bring it back to life!

[hinrichs]

Props for taking on this kind of project, awesome that those panels are avail. Crazy tho how long that went untouched and esp that someone was driving it.

[JP911]

Didn't update this for a while since the forum was being redone so here we goooo:

Started cutting the front pan off. Interesting to find out that all these panels are held together with spot welds. I talked to the Restoration Design guys and they recommended rosette welds to best replicate the OEM welds.



I did most of the cutting with a angle grinder, and used a Dremal for the tricker bits. Some areas were super hard to get into, and since I wanted to leave the torsion bars for reference that things would line up, it proved to be even harder. A lot of it was just brute force. Bulk of the cutting took place in a two week window.





The areas that I knew I would be keeping I was extra careful with. This front chin area was a real pain in the ass. You can't see it well here but each spot weld was ground down then drilled through to attempt to preserve the metal that I would need. There are two rows of spot welds. Even after drilling, I had to chisel the panel for a while before it budged. There was something romantic about knowing I was the first person to see the inside of these panels in 43 years.







Finally out. Hilarious how rusty the old panel is compared to the new one. The old one also had a cutout for A/C, but since this car had AC delete, I purchased panels without the A/C cutout.



The metal was 8/10 here, but there was some areas that split when I was grinding. Likely water pooled here, or where the acid from the battery leaked. Regardless it wasn't strong enough to weld on so I decided to just cut and fix it for good.











Just an FYI i just guessed to the best of my abilities how best to fab this stuff since I am really new to this. But with a bit of grinding and welding, it turned out pretty good.

Heres another place where it was thin. This one was super awkward which required some hammering to curve. Really frustrating and took a few hours - but worked in the end. I feel like experienced people could do this in a few minutes.





After welding in those two pieces, everything else was fine. Just grinding off old metal and wire wheeling rust. Cleaning up the holes I drilled. You can see the holes I drilled out earlier. Panel fitment was a wrestle. Some areas just didn't want to squeeze in. It was more because of my car than the panel itself. After a few days of grinding and trying, it fit perfect. Bolted up to the torsion bars too.







So pretty.

Welding the spot welds. Looking back I could have used a lower feed setting but penetration and strength was my top priority. I struck my arc dead centre in the hole, then circular motioned outwards in a spiral until I pulled in the edge of the panel on top. With each weld I got better and better until it became almost a rhythm. Near the end it was a bit therapeutic.



I want to mention also that welding on weld through primer was very splattery in the beginning. Its obviously better than nothing, since it protects the inside of the panels, but you really have to hold the welding arc for a few seconds before it stops splattering and smoothens out. Then you can drag the pool to the outside ring of the secondary panel.



Didn't take too many pictures since I was busy welding, but this was the finished result of the first panel and the torsion bar caps. Also the panel on the right side was from Restoration Design as well, but an OEM old stock part. I realized I needed it so I got it shipped instead of making the drive again. Easy prep, just drill and rosette weld like the rest.



Beefy welds - probably an overkill.





Applied primer, then seam sealer then black enamel paint. Not the prettiest but the rubber seam sealer will keep the water out. I just used a calking gun and my hands (With gloves) to massage it into the micro gaps of the welded panels.



Also painted the inside of the panels for extra rust protection, then applied weld through primer on the edges before finally sealing it up. Should have signed my name or something. Hopefully good for another 40 years.





And finally back to a new front end.

[Steven_318ti]

Man credit where credits due, what an undertaking, great work so far, definitely keeping an eye on this, love the old Carreras

[MkI]

Your mini was a top favourite of mine! Such a shame it's gone, but you've got to chase your dreams
...and this project is pretty damn awesome! Looking forward to watching how it goes

[JP911]

Your mini was a top favourite of mine! Such a shame it's gone, but you've got to chase your dreams
...and this project is pretty damn awesome! Looking forward to watching how it goes

Thanks. Ill miss that car Maybe one day ill build another Mini.

[JP911]

Some old pics from a few weeks back:





Primed



Final result!











New car smell. Not bad for a DIY job. Now the fun begins - reassembling everything.

[JP911]

Took off the headers to get sand blasted and Coated them with VHT rattle can paint - I think Ill end up going with stainless units in the future so not too worried about em. As long as they work for this year.



Cleaned up the Torsion bar plates. The tow hook was barely held on, so I decided to just grind it off and find a bolt on solution later. Also gathered all the hardware I could find to get Zinc coated...





My OCD kicked in:









Hardware for the heat exchangers from Pelican Parts! new barrel nuts and solid copper nuts are a must after my troubles getting off the old ones.



Reassembly. Back on the ground for the first time in 8 months!

[Hugger]

Wanna know the worst feeling? When you find a killer build thread on one of your favorite cars, and it ends abruptly

But seriously, awesome job so far. Extremely impressive work. It's giving me a little hope because I'm beyond torn on diving into a project for myself, a classic BMW. Will definitely be looking forward to updates!! Awesome work and good luck with the rest.

[FowlerE30]

awesome documentation and really great project man. Right on for pursuing the dream and choosing to work on your own car to get too know it. skimmed through quickly but looks like the panel replacement was solid work.

[anti.engineered]

Mad

[JP911]

Took it out for its first drive a few weeks back. Still lots of work to do but was good to give it a run down. First drive - brakes felt horrible. Shifting felt pretty bad. But I didn't care - felt so good after sitting for 6 months!

[JP911]

After driving the car, I felt that the brakes pulsated a lot. if I braked hard it would pull left violently. Didn't feel really safe driving it so I decided to just overhaul everything. Don't want to cut corners on brakes.

Horrifyingly I found out whoever owned this car last thought it was a good idea to put two different brake callipers in the front. The driver rear caliber was seized completely. I decided to get front rotors and pistons from a late model Carrera (24mm thick rotors) and brakes. and for the rear new rotors and rebuild the existing callipers. I heard you could use this setup without a prop valve if you use older style callipers in the rear, which is what I had already.

The miss matched callipers that caused the pulling.





The brand new callipers, rotors and Textar pads.










Cleaned up the rears with all new hardware, pads, and seals!



Drove the car for a bit after that - wow night and day. Pedal still feels a bit spongy so I will bleed it again soon. No more pulling or pulsating. Felt like a new car. Money well spent.

[tylerlb]

Love this kind of R&R.

Keep it coming!

[SebastienPeek]

Love the shit out of this man, nice!